The Catholic Church-funded counselling and support service for survivors of abuse, Towards Healing, has published its first annual report.In 2011, the service provided 28,079 face-to-face counselling sessions to over 1,300 survivors at an average cost of €70 per session.
Its helpline responded to almost 12,000 calls between February - when it was set up - and December of last year.
Of those who had contacted the service in 2011, about 80 per cent have been people who were in institutions as children, while 20 per cent would have been in a parish/diocesan context.
Over the year it provided counselling to 994 people worldwide, 80 per cent of whom were in the Republic of Ireland. A further 13 per cent were in the United Kingdom, with 4 per cent in Northern Ireland and 3 per cent in other countries. On average in 2011, about 30 new survivors registered with it each month.
Towards Healing has a "no waiting" policy and is free irrespective of a survivor’s current place or country of residence. “Once a client registers with Towards Healing they will be in direct contact with a therapist within days,” agency chairman James Nugent SC has said.
It was “the real strength of our service”, clinical director Dr Melissa Dermody said, adding it is “available to anyone who [as a minor] was physically, sexually, or emotionally abused by a member of the Catholic Church or in its care” in Ireland. This included women who were in Magdalene Laundries, Dr Dermody said.
To date, Towards Healing had assisted people on all continents, Mr Nugent told The Irish Times this afternoon. However, he pointed out the great majority of those who contacted the agency live in Ireland and the United Kingdom, although others are in the United States, Canada, Australia, continental Europe, with some in China and South America.
Chief executive Michael Lyons said although 4,470 people had availed of such services provided by the Catholic Church in Ireland since 1996, there were “significant indications” that many more had not availed of them yet. He noted, for example, that of those who had been in residential institutions run by religious congregations as children, sonme 15,000 had applied to the Redress Board.
Mr Nugent, Dr Dermody, and Mr Lyons were speaking this afternoon as Towards Healing published its first annual report. The service was established in February of 2011 as a more comprehensive alternative to the Faoiseamh service set up by the Sisters of Mercy in 1996.
That followed the RTÉ Dear Daughter documentary that dealt with events at the Goldenbridge orphanage in Dublin as recalled by Christine Buckley.
Faoiseamh provided a helpline and face-to-face counselling for about 25 per cent of those who used its helpline. Total funding by the Church for the Faoiseamh service came to €22 million from religious congregations and dioceses.
Towards Healing has continued those services but also provides "self-help" meetings, a "friendly phone call service" to keep contact with people and an advocacy service to help survivors access entitlements. It also provides a restorative-justice service for those who may need to meet their abuser as part of the healing process.
It is funded by the Catholic bishops, the Conference of Religious of Ireland, and the Irish Missionary Union. They provided it with €2.8 million last year.
However, it is an independent confidential service that is delivered by lay independent counsellors and psychotherapists. To date its work has involved 700 therapists.
While its clients are entitled to receive as many as 80 counselling sessions the majority do not exceed 40. For those who feel they may need more than 60 sessions there is an independent review mechanism that will determine whether this is the case. To date about 6 per cent of clients required counselling beyond the norm.
Of those who have availed of its services in 2011, 51 per cent are female with 49 per cent male. Those services are not just available to survivors, who made up 74 per cent of those who did avail of them. A further 16 per cent were survivor children, 8 per cent were survivor partners, 2 per cent were parents of survivors and 1 per cent were siblings of survivors.
The Towards Healing helpline is available at 1800 303 416 from the Republic of Ireland or at 0800 0963315 from Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom.
It operates on Mondays and Wednesdays from 11am to 8pm and on Fridays from 11am to 4pm.
The service can be emailed casemanager@towardshealing.ie and its website is towardshealing.ie